Saturday, November 10, 2007

Mark Twain House

I was looking through all the pics on my memory card, and realized I never got around to posting about my visit to the Mark Twain house. It was a nice little tour, if on the pricey side. Our guide was one of the originals who started when the house first opened to the public. He was very knowledgeable, if not terribly animated. Pictures of the inside of the house are not allowed, but it was like you'd expect any Gilded Age house to be: very over the top. What was interesting to me was that Twain had it built very early in his career, when he was only in his 30's. I asked the guide how he could afford such luxury at that point, since the typical writer we all envision is struggling to make ends meet. But he apparently married well, and even his first book was very successful and made him quite a bit of money.

One anecdote from the tour that I thought was funny was about the bed that Twain bought while in Venice, Italy, and had shipped back to Connecticut. He slept with his head at the footboard, so he could face the headboard. His philosophy was that he spent so much money on this bed, that he wanted to be able to enjoy its beauty rather than have his back to it.

Here are a couple of photos:

Main House

Main House, angle 2

Carriage House

During the tour, one of my fellow onlookers seemed really familiar to me, but I couldn't quite place her. Something told me she had something to do with teaching, though. After the tour, I asked her if she was from California. Yes. Southern? Yes. Involved in teaching? Yes. In Santa Clarita? Yes. Turns out, she was one of the frequent substitutes at the junior high I worked at. Man, it's a small world!!!